296 Dead in Paraguay Supermarket Fire

ASUNCION, Paraguay – Survivors of an inferno in a crowded supermarket said locked doors slowed their escape from the fast-spreading fire that killed at least 296 people, Paraguay’s worst disaster in more than half a century.

Hundreds more were injured, many with serious burns, after flames swept through the multilevel Ycua Bolanos supermarket on the outskirts of the capital, Asuncion, while it was crowded with Sunday afternoon shoppers.

Attorney General Oscar German LaTorre put the death toll at 296 but said the search resumed at daylight Monday for victims. Earlier, Paraguay’s Channel 9 had reported 340 bodies recovered and hundreds of people injured, citing unofficial accounts by rescue workers and police.

Officials said the fire was the deadliest incident in Paraguay since a failed military insurrection in 1947 left some 8,000 people dead.

The heat of the blaze caused one floor to collapse, crushing dozens of cars in the parking lot as flames engulfed motorists inside, police said. Badly burned bodies, some with twisted limbs, were whisked away as black billows of smoke rose overhead. Rescuers led away dozens of children found near the store’s toy department.

“This is a moment of great anguish,” said President Nicanor Duarte, who declared three days of national mourning. Classes were canceled in Asuncion and people jammed hospitals and clinics to donate blood.

Authorities said they had detained two owners of the supermarket for questioning about reports by some survivors that doors had been locked. A statement released by the management denied doors were locked after the fire broke out to prevent looting.

Police said they were also investigating survivor accounts the fire may have been fueled by an exploding gas canister in the food court area. Authorities said they still had not concluded what cause the blaze.

Overnight, army troops somberly unloaded truckloads of wooden coffins at makeshift morgues. Tearful relatives filed in early Monday to identify bodies and funerals were being planned at cemeteries around the capital.

Meanwhile, at hospitals police held back sobbing people as the injured, some covered in gold foil blankets, were rushed into emergency rooms on stretchers.

One survivor who identified himself as Victor Catan told Argentina’s TodoNoticias television network, that he lost his wife in the blaze but escaped with his young son by stumbling out in the dark.

“I managed to get out with son, but my wife didn’t make it,” Catan said, adding he was still searching for her.

Several levels of the multilevel supermarket were covered in soot, including a lower level parking garage where cars were crushed and burned.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene said hundreds of neighbors living nearby rushed to the scene, helping to carry bodies from the building as firefighters held water hoses. One woman, her face caked in soot, cried as she was carried away on the shoulders of a rescuer.

Stretched for emergency services including medical equipment, Paraguayan authorities frantically sought additional ambulances from remote interior cities and even neighboring Argentina.

Public Health Minister Julio Cesar Velazquez told reporters, “I have never seen a disaster like this. The firefighters were taking out, as best as they could, the bodies, the injured and people suffering from smoke inhalation. It’s horrible.”

District police commander Aristides Cabral said an explosion reportedly was heard before fire swept through the building.

“There was an explosion inside and the heat forced the bottom floor supporting the basement to give way, crushing dozens of people,” he said.